Recycler adds 2nd Ohio plant

By: Frank Antosiewicz

December 10, 2012

Geo-Tech Polymers LLC is opening its second recycling facility and will boost capacity 150 percent, according to President Doug Collins.

Geo-Tech has a proprietary process for recycling coated plastics used in consumer and automotive applications. It is able to remove coatings such as paints and metals from plastic substrate materials without using chemicals or solvents that degrade or diminish material properties.

The company has leased a 123,000-square-foot facility in Waverly, Ohio, and is busy installing its second line and hopes to have it ready in the first quarter of 2013.

Collins said the company wanted to stay in Pike County and found the Waverly building, which formerly housed a modular-home manufacturer and is only an hour from Geo-Tech’s current facility in Westerville, Ohio.

Collins expects to add 50 jobs in the next three years. Geo-Tech plans to run one line in Westerville and two in Waverly.

The firm’s process is especially effective for recycling auto parts, especially those made from thermoplastic polyolefins, he said.

Geo-Tech is also benefitting from being acquired in June by waste management and recycling services company Wastren Advantage Inc. of Piketon, Ohio, Collins said. The deal allowed Wastren to diversify its portfolio outside of government contracts and gave Geo-Tech capital necessary to expand its business.

For the Waverly operation, Geo-Tech will receive a $460,000 economic development loan from Pike County.

The company also received $50,000 from the Fluor-B&W Portsmouth Opportunity Fund, a $10,000 grant from the Southern Ohio Agricultural and Community Development Foundation, a $1.2 million loan through the JobsOhio program and a $50,902 jobs-creation tax credit. The balance of the project is being financed locally by Ohio Valley Bank.